Both were employed by Kerfódrun, a company set up by ISAL in order to contract out some work at the plant. Kristjánsson had been working at the plant for 14 months. Kristinsson is a replacement worker during the summer months.

The explosion occurred when the two were working on a pod scheduled to be restarted on full power later in the day. The pod had electricity running through the electrodes in order to heat it up. The workers were loosening iron clings, which connect the electrodes to a bridge, without noticing or without knowing that they should not loosen the clings before the electrodes had been locked to their usual fittings. When they had almost finished the job the voltage reached such a high level that an electrical explosion, similar to lightning, occurred.

At a meeting with ISAL security representative Halldór Halldórsson and the manager of the pod house, workers asked why the men who were injured were not familiar with the dangers of the work situation. Halldórsson said it was not clear what had happened and noted that the workers involved were employed by Kerfódrun, implying that ISAL was not responsible for training them. One worker asked if it was true that Kristjánsson had asked to be allowed to leave early that day. Halldórsson answered that it would be hard for his family to hear stories like that.

In an article in the daily Fréttabladid, Halldórsson brushed off the workers' death and injury, saying accidents at work always can occur, just as someone could fall off a chair because they are sitting on it in the wrong way.

At the entrance to the plant the bosses maintain a billboard claiming to show how many days have passed since a lost-time injury. Workers at the plant know that there are many accidents that do not get registered on the billboard. After the explosion, the company did not zero out the days on the billboard, stating that the workers involved were employed by another company.

This stance was opposed by many workers, who pressured the company to put the billboard at zero when Kristjánsson died. At the same time the bosses said the company would not start registering accidents of workers employed by Kerfódrun and that the change in the billboard was out of respect for workers at Kerfódrun.

After the funeral the company started counting the days without a lost-time injury again. A few days later, however, the bosses decided to stop using the billboard altogether.  
 
 
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